Posts Tagged ‘Guadalupe River Trail’

Wow, talk about a great ride: be sure you do the Guadalupe River Trail from San Jose to Alviso now that it’s paved the entire way.

I’ve been waiting years to see it happen and today was my chance to do the ride. I started using the river’s unpaved levee in 2006, and watched as short sections were paved, anticipating the big day when it was paved beginning to end — downtown San Jose to Alviso.

Guadalupe River Trail near Hwy 237 is newly paved.

The paved path runs on the river’s east/north bank starting at the San Jose Airport. I’ve always ridden the path’s western/southern side, which is still open and still dirt.

Lots of people already use the path, which runs under just about every road along the way, the one exception being Airport Parkway where you ride over the bridge to stay on the path.

The only negative that will take some time to fix is that there’s flooding at low spots during heavy rain: Hwy 101, Trimble Road, Montague Expressway, Tasman Drive, Hwy 237.

Signs of the times
You’ll enjoy the interpretive signs as you ride past interesting landmarks. There’s Lupe the Columbian mammoth at Trimble Road. In 2005, Roger Castillo found the juvenile’s bones sticking out of the riverbank. Its remains were exhumed and given to the San Jose Discovery Museum a couple miles away. Also, a ramp was cut at Trimble Road for easy access. It was probably in the plan all along, but when I saw it the ramp hadn’t been added.

I learned a lot at the interpretive sign in front of the airport. Did you know the first flight took place in 1949? Pacific Southwest Airlines carried seven passengers and 2,550 chickens. How times have changed.

I’ll be riding this trail often in the years ahead. Now on to Coyote Creek Trail. Once that’s complete to the Bay, we’ll have a top-notch creek-trail network.

Progress is being made on the San Tomas Aqunio Creek path extension from Cabrillo Avenue to El Camino Real. The concrete barrier is done and the sound walls are about halfway complete. The sign says mid-July for completion.